Appellate Law

The Buzz on Hall Street v. Mattel

By D. Todd Smith

The blogosphere has been a little slow catching on to yesterday's SCOTUS decision in Hall Street Associates, L.L.C. v. Mattel, Inc. (06-989).  Aside from my own post, here are the blog entries I have found discussing the case:

• Adjunct Law Prof Blog, which opines that parties to a collective bargaining agreement can still alter the standard of judicial review because they are governed by 29 U.S.C. § 1985 (Section 301) and common law, rather than the FAA.
  
• Blawgletter, which surmises that the decision might re-focus attention on the arbitration process itself and mentions that parties who remain concerned about an arbitrator "going off the reservation" might consider adopting an arbitration appeal procedure.
  
• Federal Civil Practice Bulletin, which summarizes the majority opinion.
  
• Northwest Business Litigation Blog, which does the same.
  
• SCOTUSwiki, which has a lot of background information on the case.
  
• Supreme Court of Texas Blog, which focuses on how the case may affect Bison Building Materials, Ltd. v. Aldridge (No. 06-1084), a case currently pending in the Texas Supreme Court—and rightly points out that Hall Street may be flying under the radar because it was issued the same day as "the much sexier Medellin v. Texas decision".
  
• WorkPlace Prof Blog, which found the outcome surprising and somewhat troubling because it might restrict contracting parties' ability to bargain for procedural protections not specifically addressed in the FAA.

I will supplement this list as new discussions come to my attention.

Full post as published by Texas Appellate Law Blog on March 26, 2008 (boomark / email).